I wonder who the mystery 5th bidder is then? According to the link it says 5 bids received, but only 4 are listed. I would assume it’s Edinburgh Coach Lines?
There may not be a 5th bidder, but 5 bids from 4 bidders with one of the bidders submitting both a compliant bid and alternative bid. If so then presumably Lothian Buses.
It's nothing to do with being flavour of the month. If McGill's had submitted a bid, the council would be obliged to consider it in the same way as the others.
I bet though it’s the classic moaning from the people that use it maybe a couple of times a month at a push. Time and time again a fair few of us have said there’s no point keeping it from Hanover Street to Lochend as it’s normally a fresh air bus, but the council caved in to a few moaners.
I often see mid Tuesday afternoon journeys on this route when visiting my daughter at Belleview. Recently I saw half a dozen on the bus which to be frank is sometimes the same size load as on other Lothian routes in the area at that time of day. Only by examining ticket machine data should decisions be made on whether to continue the present routeing.
If it was Edinburgh Live, that article was deleted.
The same article also appeared in yesterday's Edinburgh Evening News - whose publishers, National World, aren't exactly renowned for their accuracy.
I believe it’s the same article that’s been given to a few places. The author has since deleted it all.
An article that's been run and then deleted tells you all that you need to know about the standard of journalism these days - running a story that's based on assumptions without any facts. Journalists need to remember that two plus two does not equal five, which is exactly what's happened here.
A small number of the Special Schools and Roman Catholic Schools have coach transport from areas that are further away. AAA Coaches have been the councils main source of coaches for at least a couple of decades now, which includes private hires to events etc. I imagine only schools in the far west of the city have a chance of having school transport, for example Kirkliston, South Queensferry and Ratho. Even then there’s a chance they might have nothing.
The Gaelic primary school in Leith is served by a number of school transport routes ranging from taxis to coaches as it serves not only the city but also the other parts of the Lothians.
What date do all these changes take effect from ?
I mean it's not exactly packed, but usually there's at least a few folk on it, often 3-6 people going between the gyle and clermiston.
I was on it once and at least 20 school kids got on the bus on Craigs Road going to Meadow Place Road so it is used by school kids as well.
There was no date mentioned.
This may not necessarily end up being the case should an operator bid for another tender then merge the routes. However, an hourly service between Queensferry & Gyle is to be expected no matter what.
The fact the route is split is a bit crazy in my opinion. Considering the 26 from Clermiston all the way to Prestonpans. However Queensferry to terminate at the Gyle is rather short sighted.
I think you’ve forgotten that the 63 is a subsidised route though. As such there’s only a requirement to run the service to the subsidy requirements. Anything above and beyond this in terms of routing, frequency and hours of operation normally falls into the commercial arm. The overall subsidy would usually remain the same. Given the 63’s subsidy requirement now is only going to be between South Queensferry and the Gyle, where exactly would any route be best going and where is the incentive or necessity to do this? As has been said before, in an ideal world, the same operator will win the 63 and the remaining portion of the 20 (Gyle to Chesser) and operate the route as one through route. Ideal worlds are not often reality though. The current 20 is again two separate contracts, 20 (Gyle to Chesser) and then 20 extension (Hermiston Gait to Ratho).
25min curtail time for a ~35min route seems a bit excessive, does it not?